This Is What Nuclear Weapons Leave in Their Wake

A remote area of Kazakhstan was once home to nearly a quarter of the world’s nuclear testing. The impact on its inhabitants has been devastating.

By Alexandra Genova

Photographs by Phil Hatcher-Moore

Concrete structures are pictured approximately 650 feet away from the site of the first Soviet nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site, south of Kurchatov, in Kazakhstan.

Photograph by Phil Hatcher-Moore

Decay and desolation scar the landscape of a remote corner of the Kazakh
Steppe. Unnatural lakes formed by nuclear bomb explosions pockmark the
once flat terrain, broken up only by empty shells of buildings. It appears
uninhabitable. And yet, ghosts – living and dead – haunt the land, still
burdened by the effects a nuclear testing program that
stopped nearly 30 years ago.

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Berik Syzdykov, 38, sits at the kitchen table in the apartment he shares with his mother in Semey, Kazakhstan. Berik was born with birth defects after his pregnant mother was exposed to radiation from a nuclear test blast conducted by the Soviet Union in the Semipalatinsk test site in Kazakhstan. He is blind, and has had several operations to reduce the swelling in his face.

Photograph by Phil Hatcher-Moore

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Soldiers walk on a windswept road on the edge of Semey.

Photograph by Phil Hatcher-Moore

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Inside a former KGB building in Kurchatov, Kazakhstan.

Photograph by Phil Hatcher-Moore

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Alijan Imanbaev at home in Semey, Kazakhstan. Alijan suffers from epilepsy and learning difficulties.

Photograph by Phil Hatcher-Moore

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Ayman Norgazinova, 49, a lab worker, inspects a rat used for research testing in the State Medical University of Semey in eastern Kazakhstan. Staff here are researching the effects of radiation on the rats' organs. The animals were exposed to radiation through small manganese particles they breathed in to simulate radioactive dust.

Photograph by Phil Hatcher-Moore

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A family passes derelict housing blocks in the town of Kurchatov, Kazakhstan. The population of the town is half of what it was at the end of the nuclear testing.

Photograph by Phil Hatcher-Moore

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Archive photographs of atomic mushroom clouds are pictured on a wall in the Museum of the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kurchatov, Kazakhstan.

Photograph by Phil Hatcher-Moore

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Zulfiya Tunkushgojine, 35, at her home she shares with her mother and siblings in the village of Shakaman in eastern Kazakhstan. Zulfiya was born with cerebral palsy which doctors say was due to the nuclear testing conducted at the Semipalatinsk test site. Her mother used to live in Saryzal, close to the nuclear tests, until 1962.

Photograph by Phil Hatcher-Moore

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Kazbek Kasimov, 60, herds sheep and goats at the Semipalatinsk Test Site, south of Kurchatov in Kazakhstan. The area was used for 456 nuclear tests between 1949 and 1989 and some areas are still heavily contaminated with radiation.

Photograph by Phil Hatcher-Moore

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Nurse Marjan Kasenova plays with Kanat Rahimov, 15, in a ward of the Children's Centre of Special Social Services in Ayagoz, eastern Kazakahstan. Kanat was born with cerebral palsy.

Photograph by Phil Hatcher-Moore

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Mass is performed at the Voskresenskij Cathedral in Semey.

Photograph by Phil Hatcher-Moore

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A rack for holding uranium fuel containers in the low-enriched uranium bank, currently under construction at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant in Ust'-Kamenogorsk in eastern Kazakhstan. The bank, owned and controlled by the International Atomic Energy Agency, will hold a reserve of low-enriched uranium for nuclear power plants, designed to reduce the need for countries to enrich fuel themselves and reduce the risks of nuclear proliferation.

Photograph by Phil Hatcher-Moore

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A woman walks through Soviet-era housing blocks in Semey.

Photograph by Phil Hatcher-Moore

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Balkiya Usabayeva, 64, receives treatment via a drip at the Institute for Radiation and Ecology in Semey, Kazakhstan. Balkiya has suffered from heart disease and high blood pressure for over 10 years, and has always lived in Semey. Doctors say even though she was not directly exposed to the testing at the Semipalatinsk test site, she received a chronic dose of radiation living in Semey during that period.

Photograph by Phil Hatcher-Moore

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A patient is prepared for gamma ray treatment for skin cancer in the Oncology Centre in Semey, eastern Kazakhstan.

Photograph by Phil Hatcher-Moore

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Passengers prepare to board the train in Semey.

Photograph by Phil Hatcher-Moore

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A staff member of the municipal government in Kurchatov shows a video about the nuclear testing conducted from the town during the Cold War.

Photograph by Phil Hatcher-Moore

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Kairat Yesimhanov, 35, sits at home in Sulbinsk, in eastern Kazakhstan. Kairat and his younger sister, Aygul, suffer from cerebral palsy.

Photograph by Phil Hatcher-Moore

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Dusk falls in Saryzhal, a village on the edge of the former Semipalatinsk Test Site. During the Cold War, scientists would come to the village and measure radiation levels. Residents remember seeing many animals losing their fur following the tests.

Photograph by Phil Hatcher-Moore

Tap images for captions

The site, known as the Polygon, was home to nearly a quarter of the world’s
nuclear tests during the Cold War. The zone was chosen for being unoccupied,
but several small agricultural villages dot its perimeter. Though some
residents were bussed out during the test period, most remained. The damage
that continues today is visceral.

Photographer Phil Hatcher-Moore spent two months documenting the region,
and was struck by the “wanton waste of man’s folly.”

His project ‘Nuclear Ghosts’ marries the wasted landscape and intimate
portraits of villagers still suffering the consequences.

The figures are astonishing – some 100,000 people in the area are still
affected by radiation, which can be transmitted down through five generations.
But with his intimately harrowing pictures, Moore sought to make the abstract
numbers tangible.

Rustam Janabaev, 6, lies in his cot in a ward of the Children's Centre of Special Social Services in Ayagoz, eastern Kazakahstan. Rustam was born with hypdrocephalus.

“Nuclear contamination is not something we can necessarily see,” he says.
“And we can talk about the numbers, but I find it more interesting to focus
on individuals who encapsulate the story.”

Moore interviewed all his subjects before picking up his camera and learned
that secrecy and misinformation plagued much of their experience.

top: Zhaksilyik Abishulyi, 72, sits in his home in the village of Saryzhal.
"I was born and raised here," he says. "Testing started
in 1949 when I was five years old."

bottom:

Kapiza Mukanova, who is in her 80s, sits in her home in the village of Saryzhal in eastern Kazakhstan. Kapiza has lost three of her children which she attributes to effects of the Polygon nuclear testing.

Photographs by Phil Hatcher-Moore

“[During the 50s] one guy was packed up with his tent and told to live
out in the hills for five days with his flock. He was effectively used
as a test subject to see what happened,” says Moore. “They were never told
what was going on, certainly not the dangers that they may be in.”

Though human stories were central, Moore also documented the scientific
test labs that are still uncovering the damage. The juxtaposition of these
labs alongside portraits of people disfigured by radiation makes for uncomfortable
viewing. But this proximity is deliberate.

“There was a history of humans being used as live subjects,” says Moore.
“I wanted to marry these ideas together; the way people were used by researchers
at the time and how that trickles down into every day life - what that
looks like, what that means.”

Birds fly over the cemetery on the outskirts of Semey during a winter storm.

Photograph by Phil Hatcher-Moore

While some of Moore’s subjects are severely deformed, many suffer from
less visible health issues like cancer, blood diseases or PTSD. And the
hidden, insidious nature of the thing is what is perhaps most troubling.
“For a long time there hadn’t been much nuclear development but it is a
very real issue right now,” says Moore. “But we don’t talk about what it
takes to renew these weapons. These people are legacy and testament to
what was done to meet those ends.”